Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400

Infiniti Turns Up the Heat With 400-Horsepower Q50 “Red Sport”

On the autocross Infiniti set up at a horse park, the Q50 Red Sport 400 demonstrated excellent balance, with very little understeer. Its adjustable valve-controlled dampers, which Infiniti calls Dynamic Digital Suspension, can be switched from Standard to Sport. The latter noticeably reduces body roll, and provides a stiffer, flatter ride around turns. On the sharpest corners of the track it dug in and moved around with surprising deftness. No, it’s not quite an M3 — but my pant-seat guess is it’ll easily beat a Mercedes-Benz C450 and even give the BMW 340i a run for its money on a track. On faster courses, however, the Q50’s extra 80-hp over the 340i will surely leave the Bimmer glaring angrily in the rearview.

Otherwise the 2017 Q50 is quite similar to the 2016 model, at least in the cabin. A well laid out interior is surfaced by average materials, but its touchscreen MMI is easy to navigate. Exterior-wise, the Red Sport 400 gets red “S” badging on the decklid and bodysides, special exhaust tips and exclusive, staggered 19” wheels.

There’s also more proof of Infiniti/Nissan’s innovation, including Predictive Forward Collision Warning (PFCW). The world’s first, PFCW sees beyond the normal field of view to scan two cars ahead for sudden braking. This is a brand that brought much new tech to the automotive space — one of our favorites being the super handy birds-eye view “Around View Monitor” — so it has set a high standard that the Q50 Red Sport meets.

The Q50 is Infiniti’s best selling vehicle, with over 110,000 units sold over its lifetime, and for 2017 it is improved across trim levels. That improvement is most drastic in the Red Sport 400, which fills a much-needed sweet spot between the top-end base sedans and their high-dollar, high-performance AMG/M/RS brethren. And although pricing has yet to be announced, expect around $48,000 starting for the Red Sport 400, with a fully loaded model costing around $55,000. This makes it a bit more expensive than the 340i (starting at $45,800), about the same as the 362-hp Mercedes-Benz C450 ($50,800), and significantly cheaper than both the M3 ($63,500) and AMG C63 ($63,000). In value, that’s hard to beat for a 400-hp sedan.